


The Devil's in the Details

by Providentially_Demonic



Series: Demon Arthur AU [2]
Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, Demon AU, Multi, demon!arthur
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-09-28 02:37:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10066745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Providentially_Demonic/pseuds/Providentially_Demonic
Summary: Arthur, now a demon in body, if not spirit has some adjusting to do, as do friends and family.A collection of Drabbles and shorts written for the Demon!Arthur AU created by tumblr user Ectoimp, ratings may vary. Some of them were previously posted in Touches of Mystery but I'm moving them over here to keep everything together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This came from a prompt given to me by tumblr user blackraspberrybitch, "Demon Arthur trying to hide things from other people by covering them with his wings. I.e. Himself from Lance when they meet face to face. Awkward silence ensues."

_“Nonononononononooooo!”_ came from the corner of the room where Arthur had collapsed into a heap behind the couch, wings wrapped around him until he resembled nothing so much as a heap of green and yellow mottled tarp. The tip of his tail was the only other thing visible and it was poofed up to three times its normal size. “Vivi, don’t answer the door!”

It was far too late of course, because she was already pulling the door wide open to admit the scowling mechanic.

“Alright, so I found the place, girlie, though to be sure I didn’t like little pink spooks showin’ up at the shop to lead me here. Half’a my boys are still hidin’ in the back room.”

“Sorry, had to be sure you could find the place,” Vivi sounded entirely unapologetic. “We are a bit off the beaten path.”

“Now, what’s so important?”

“Well, I found Arthur and Lewis!”

 _“WHAT?!_ Where’s my nephew?”

“He’s here, he just is afraid to show his face because of something that happened while he was missing… there are more than a few… cosmetic changes.”

“D’you think fer one bloody second I give a tinker’s damn about cosmetic changes? _**Where**_ _is my BOY?!”_ Lance’s roar shook the furniture and sent two deadbeats fleeing.

“Over here.”

Vivi led Lance to a heap of green cowering behind the couch, still quietly going _“…nononononono…”_

“Arthur?” Lance, bless his huge gruff heart, actually sounded worried. “Lad, come out where’s I can see ya.”

“I can’t…” Arthur’s voice was faint and muffled.

“Lad, I don’t care what you look like, you’re still my boy. Come outta that tarp. I need to see you with my own two eyes.”

“No, I can’t,” Arthur’s voice was tight.

“I told you, I don’t give a damn what you look like, you’re still my kid.”

“No, you don’t get it.” Arthur’s voice sounded some mix between fearful and… _annoyed?_

“I can’t make these stupid wings work. I literally can’t come out.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was inspired by a question about when and how the OT3 came to be. Ectoimp-- creator of said AU answered "I don’t think it was the cave that awakened those feelings. They were there before hand, but no one had made a move yet. Vivi and Lewis talked about it and planned to ask soon, but unfortunately, the cave happened." and off my brain went...

Arthur was asleep— curled up on the couch, his wings wrapped around himself like a blanket and his head pillowed on one arm. His tail had crept up to coil loosely around Lewis’s wrist, and Lewis was just watching him, absently stroking the surprisingly soft tuft of hair at the end.

“I remember when you would stare at me with that _same_ expression on your face.” A quiet voice came from the doorway. Vivi stood there in her sleep wear, a white long-sleeve shirt with sleeves that draped past her fingertips and a pair of magenta sleep shorts that reached below her knees, with the waist drawstring tied off as tight as it would go. She looked rumpled, sleepy and adorable, but her gaze was steady on Lewis’s face.

Lewis didn’t bother to deny her words. “I never stopped looking at you like that.”

“You _did,”_ Yawning, she padded over and sat down in his lap, draping one arm around his neck and carefully tucking her toes under the draped edge of Arthur’s wing. _“Brr,_ cold this morning.”

Lewis stared at her aghast. He had _never_ stopped loving her!

She reached up and shut his mouth with a tired giggle. “Oh, wipe that wounded look off your face. You stopped wearing that expression the day I agreed to go out with you. You stopped looking all lovelorn then. But it’s back… and it’s _not_ directed at me this time.” She glanced meaningfully at Arthur’s peaceful face.

Lewis sighed and brushed her messy hair back from her face with his free hand. “No, no, it’s not. But I don’t want to say anything yet.”

“Why?” Vivi turned her face up to his, traces of hurt lingering in her voice. “We—”

He shushed her with a finger across her lips before her raised voice could wake Arthur. “I know what we discussed, love, and I still want that, but Arthur… he’s been through so much lately. I don’t want to heap this on him when he’s had so much emotional instability in the last month.”

Vivi scowled. “Emotional instability? I will never _not_ care about him. I was the one that marched up to your door, _remember?_ I was hunting for that damned cave, even though _you_ made me forget where it was! I would have looked for him till I found him, or barring that, his ghost.” She thumped a fist against his chest. “Did you see that bear hug Lance wrapped him in? Look at him still clinging to you in his sleep… How’s that for emotional instability, _buster?”_

Lewis looked pained. “He’s still shaken, Viv. And to be honest, he clung to me in the cave because… well, I’m all that he could hold onto at the time. I don’t want to push anything, not when… he might not be thinking straight.”

“If it’s about you, he’s definitely not thinking _straight,”_ Vivi snorted at her own joke. “I call bullshit on the rest of it though, buddy. Arthur… he… do you honestly think he clung to you like that before the cave if he didn’t already—”

“You’ll wake him,” Lewis cupped a hand over her mouth. “I just— I want to be sure. Give him some time to settle. What if he thinks he’s trapped with us because of what happened; how he looks? I don’t want him to think we’d say it because he has no other choice.”

Vivi peeled his hand away from her mouth with a scowl. _“You numbskull._ Arthur wouldn’t think that way… he knows us better than that. Do you think he could love us if he would think that way about us? And he does, I’ve seen it. Hell, _even_ Mystery’s seen it, even though he’s still wary, he knows Arthur loves us, like we love him. It’ll… if we wait, it’ll be worse, it’ll give him too much time to stew over his own thoughts and he’ll be hurt while we dither. You know he does that!”

Lewis sucked in an unneeded breath. “Yeah. He does.”

“So…”

Lewis unwound Arthur’s tail with care not to wake him. “So… we’ll talk to him.” He pressed a hand over her mouth before she could let out the squeal he could tell was bubbling in her throat. “In the morning. It’s four AM and none of use are at our best right now. We can talk about this like reasonable people, when the sun is actually up.”

“Who said I’m _reasonable?”_ Vivi squeaked as Lewis hefted her in his arms,

“Case in point.” He growled lovingly. “Now, I’m putting your butt back to bed and we’ll talk in the morning… I _promise.”_

“Good.” Vivi stopped struggling and let him carry her back to bed.

In the darkened room behind them, gold-on-green eyes popped open and stared unseeing into the darkness.

“They… _they l-love me—?”_


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter came about through Ectoimp thinking just how clingy all the characters would be, given the circumstances (The first two segments take place directly after chapter five and the latter two come the night after Vivi finally found her boys). You can read the original post [here.](http://ecto-rp.tumblr.com/post/157434390471/after-reading-chapter-5-of)

Arthur stared at the ceiling, the dim purple light of the nightlight giving menacing shapes and shadows to what he knew were only walls and furniture. He rose from the bed and found his balance. It wasn’t easy and it gave him something to focus on, other than the silence of his new room. It was _too_ quiet. He’d gotten used to the sounds of Lewis moving around, the soft chirps of the deadbeats; the echoing characteristics of the cave making it all fill the air every second. He flicked on the light, glad when the shadows receded and settled into solid reassuring shapes.  
.  
He wanted to pace, but his balance wasn’t up to that. His wings were refusing to stay folded like he wanted them to— _stupid things!_ — instead half opened like he was going to jump up in the air or something.

He wanted something, some solid reassurance that he wasn’t alone.

Logically, he knew Lewis would never leave him… at least not by choice, but the faint thought that he would wake up and Lewis would really be dead made a sick void open in his chest. Arthur choked, the first lucid memory he had of Lewis’s otherworldly eyes reminding him that, while Lewis was here now, he might not always be.

Making up his mind, Arthur left his room and headed down the hall to the one Lewis had said was his. Cautiously, he opened the door to find an empty room, bed neatly made and untouched and as full of the oppressive silence as his own room. Panic welled in his chest until he heard sounds in the direction of the kitchen. Unconsciously he shifted forward, wings snapping down until the modified hand and thumb were on the floor, propelling him in an awkward, loping gallop down the hall. He didn’t want to think about it, needing the reassurance of Lewis’s presence.

Lewis looked up from where he was carefully spooning honey into a shallow dish. “Arthur? Why are you up?”

Arthur straightened up, self-consciously folding his arms across his chest. “I— I couldn’t sleep. It was too quiet in my room.” He looked down at the two shallow dishes on the counter, one full of milk and the other that Lewis had been spooning honey in. “Um, what about you? Why are you up?”

Lewis’s smile was a little forced. “I can’t sleep. If I get too tired, I think I can rest inside my locket, somehow. But I don’t sleep.” He opened the kitchen door and set the saucers on the grass. The smile he shot back at Arthur was a little sheepish, but more real. “Better safe than sorry. I don’t want to wear our welcome out.”

Arthur said nothing. He trusted Lewis’s instincts and if they said to leave offerings for unseen creatures, he would go with it. _“Um,_ if you’re not going to sleep… can I sit with you for a while? Just until I think I can sleep?”

Lewis smiled at him and closed the door. “Sure. We’ll go sit on the couch for a while.”

Arthur followed him out to the living area and the plush, distinctly purple couch. It took him a few minutes to figure out how to sit comfortably, wings and tail and oversized feet making it awkward, but at last he settled down on his hip, leaning against Lewis’s shoulder, with his feet tucked up and his tail curling restlessly on the couch behind him. At least his wings behaved and he sighed, feeling Lewis warm and solid (and reassuringly _there_ ) against him. He blinked once and never even felt his tail curling loosely around Lewis’s waist as his breathing deepened and sleep dragged him under like a riptide.

~~~~

Even if he had been able to sleep, Lewis would not have been able to, his mind busy with a thousand little worries. Was the bed he’d created comfortable enough for Arthur, did he have enough room… was Arthur okay out of his sight?

Lewis snorted to himself and puttered around in the kitchen, deciding the best thing to do would be to keep himself busy… He decided to make an offering for… maybe he was just imagining their welcome, but he didn’t want to risk it. And if an offering of milk and honey would ease his own mind, so be it.

He found himself relaxing the moment an oddly quadrupedal Arthur skittered into the kitchen like a spooked horse. Having Arthur there in the same room eased some tension he hadn’t been aware of. When he suggested they move out to the couch, Arthur curled up against him and was out like a light in a matter of moments.

Lewis tucked Arthur close to his side and found himself relaxing enough to rest, slipping into that state of non-thinking that was the closest he could get to actual sleep, assured for the moment that Arthur was safe and beside him.

~~~~

Vivi refused to go to bed in the room he’d created for her, standing scowling in the hallway, a tiny blue bundle of utter defiance. “Oh, no. Nobody is leaving my sight tonight. I don’t care if we have to camp out on the floor of the living room for the night, but I’m not risking either of you out of my view for one second. I lost my memories of you, and I’m _not_ risking that again. I thought Arthur was dead!” She shot a glare at a surprisingly contrite-looking Mystery. “Until I’m sure you are not going to _vanish_ with the morning sun, I’m not letting either of you get away from me for a instant.”

She stalked forward and latched onto a shrinking Arthur’s wrist, hauling him back into the living room, turning a stubborn gaze on Lewis. “Where are the spare blankets? Just point. You aren’t going to get them, Mystery can.”

Arthur shifted, trying to tug his arm free of Vivi, but she was having none of it. _**“Sit!”**_

Lewis sheepishly shrugged when she turned her gaze back on him. “Um, I can do better than that. Promise.” He lifted his hands. “I won’t even leave the room.”

He closed his eyes and fog, vaguely cool and smelling of roasted peppers, filled the floor, coalescing into a thick mattress and a heap of pillows and blankets. “Better?”

Vivi raised and eyebrow. “My… useful trick.” She plumped down on the mattress, tugging Arthur down after her. “This will do nicely. You get down here too, _buster!”_

Vivi grilled them both, asking question after question, trying to shore up the holes in her own memory as well as the missing time without her boys. She didn’t stop until morning light filled the room. When the warm light touched Arthur’s face, tears welled in her eyes and she pulled them both into a crushing hug. “You’re still here, you didn’t leave me _alone…”_

“Never again,” Lewis reassured her, letting her rest against his chest, Arthur pinned against them both by Vivi’s fierce hug. They all stayed that way until Vivi’s breaths evened out and her arms relaxed, though never loosened her grip on either of them. Even in sleep, she was not letting them go again.

~~~~~

Mystery prowled around the room, unable to settle. Vivi and Lewis would not let him near the demon in Arthur’s skin and he could not risk it hurting them. While he was glad Lewis had not departed, he dared not believe his reassurances that it was Arthur there in that winged shape pressed between his charges. It could not be. His own grief that he had been unable to save either of them gnawed at him and made him itchy and restless.

Vivi had fallen asleep in the dawn light and Lewis’s eyes were closed, but fearful gold on green eyes followed his every move. The demon didn’t move at all, holding himself so still it looked like it hurt.

“You can sleep,” the creature whispered fearfully. “Y-you don’t ha—” he broke off with a harsh swallow. “Have to trust m-me, but Lewis will never let anything happen to her again. I swear. If I’m ever a threat to her, you won’t have to worry. He would stop me first.” For a moment he saw the mechanic’s resolve in those strange eyes. “I— I made him _promise_ that.”

Mystery did not answer, but doubt ate at his assurance that this was a monster in Arthur’s body. Even after the creature had fallen asleep he continued to watch, seeing not a demon, a ghost and his last living charge drowsing in the morning light, but for a few moments, his little family cuddled together under the rosy glow.

He wanted it to stay that way with _all his heart_ even if he couldn’t let himself believe it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written because dragonfishdreams said "Arthur can wear a shirt by cutting two long slits in the back, pulling it over his head, getting his arms in the sleeves and the middle 'panel' the cuts formed situated between his wings, and then either pinning or tying (with attached strips of cloth or something) the bottom hem of the shirt together so that it's not flapping around loose." Tbh, I actually had a similar idea stemming from a Gargoyles fanfic I read a while ago...

Arthur looked dubiously at the bundle of fabric Lewis was holding out. “Um, big guy, I appreciate the thought, but, um…” One wing flexed, sunlight shining emerald through the thin membrane. “Kinda can’t wear shirts any more.”

“Trust me.” Lewis grinned.

Arthur shrugged, the motion rippling through the muscles of his wings and making a soft sound as the thin skin shifted. “Okay, but I’m not placing any bets.”

“Just hold still,” Lewis chided, moving towards him. “I think I’ve got this figured out.”

He obediently held up his arms for the sleeves and closed his eyes, trusting in Lewis despite his own doubts. Arthur shivered at the soft touch of fabric and Lewis’s warm fingers as the ghost carefully fitted the neck hole over his horns and into place.  He felt the fabric being settled carefully around his wings and craned his neck to see what Lewis was doing, but his own wings were in the way. There was a ticklish sensation near his lower back and he squirmed.

“I said hold still.” Lewis reprimanded softly. “One more, and there we go.” He straightened back up and took hold of Arthur’s shoulders, turning him toward the mirror.

Arthur still didn’t like to look in the mirror and see what he’d become, but Lewis resolutely tipped his chin up until he couldn’t help but look. And somehow the baggy white shirt made him feel better about the green-skinned image in the glass.

“How?” he asked, twisting this way and that to see how on earth it left room for his wings. But the appendages in question were almost always in the way.

“Slits in the back from the shoulder blades to the bottom of the shirt, so it’s like three panels and then there are buttons just below where the skin of the wing reaches your back. Button it up and voila, one neatly clothed Art-icle.”

Arthur stared at him and then started laughing so hard he had to grab onto Lewis to stay upright. “Trust you to dress it up that way,” he snorted between rolling laughs. “You really fashioned a winner here.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written on a prompt challenge from holywritingpromptsbatbruh for 87. I just tell myself things will get better. for Demon Arthur please.

Most of what he remembered was in bits and pieces, heavily flavored with pain, and horrifying _memories/visions/hallucinations_ — whatever they were. But he remembered Mystery attacking him all too clearly, both in the cave and when Vivi (determined soul that she was) had found them. Now the slightest flash of white sent his tail out in a bottle brush and his wings instinctively reaching for open air to flee from… what was Mystery, even?

All Arthur remembered was tails and teeth and burning red eyes and he dared not be in the same room with the _not-his-friend-anymore_ creature. Not without Vivi or Lewis to protect him. That first night, Mystery had not taken his eyes off him at all and Arthur had wanted nothing so much as to vanish. Would it really matter if he did?

Lewis and Vivi had each other back, and there was no longer any need for their former mechanic friend. And what was he after all? He thought he was still Arthur Kingsmen, but all he had to do was look at his green-skinned hands with their talons instead of nails to know that was a lie. Maybe he was just a monster hiding under a fragile web of humanity, a delicate thing that could unravel at any second and let the true creature he’d become show.

Arthur shook off the sick feeling in his stomach. He— he _needed_ Lewis. Somehow, just having Lewis nearby quelled the tangled thoughts running rampant in his head. He hurried for the kitchen, knowing at this hour, Lewis would be there, fixing something for lunch for Arthur, Vivi and… and Mystery.

No, he’d brave Mystery if Lewis’s nearness could just shut down his tangled, troubled thoughts.

As quietly as he could on oversized clawed feet, Arthur made his way to the cabin’s kitchen where he could hear Vivi chattering and Lewis humming as he cooked.

Just inside the doorway, a furious growl near his ankle triggered every single panic response in him and Arthur yelped, desperately lunging away from white/red/ _teeth/terror/anger/rage/ **coming-for-him!**_ He was so caught up in mindless fear that he clambered up Lewis like a cat up a tree, perching on his shoulders with those clawed feet and hands, wings flailing in the air with unthinking terror, tail wrapped like a vise around Lewis’s shoulder’s.

“Arthur!” Lewis’s voice was startled, but it was there and somehow that chased the fear away enough for him to actually take in what was happening. Lewis was hovering up, close enough to the ceiling, that Arthur’s fluttering wingtips brushed against it.

Vivi had risen from her seat and was furiously berating Mystery, fussing at him that if he couldn’t remember that this was Arthur, her best friend, he could just stay outside like a normal dog and eat canned dog food like one too. Mystery had laid his ears back at the scolding, but a low growl still rumbled in his throat and his eyes had not left where Arthur clung to Lewis.

Vivi grabbed him by the collar and yanked him out the kitchen door, hauling him bodily outside.

The door closed behind her but Arthur could still hear her scolding the dog.

A gentle, warm hand stroked his ankle and Lewis looked up at him with worried eyes. “Hey, he’s gone. Are you okay?”

Gathering his scattered wits, Arthur tried to climb down, only to get tangled in his own wings and tail. Lewis caught him before he hit the floor, and cradled him close.

Arthur’s wings cocooned around them, still shaking. Lewis held him tightly and murmured soothingly into his hair.

After a time, Arthur’s shaking slowed and he managed to get his wings to stop clinging to Lewis for dear life.

“You good now?” Lewis asked again, still stroking Arthur’s hair with one hand.

Arthur glanced at the kitchen door and winced away from the white he could see through the wavy glass. “Yeah, I guess. I just have to keep telling myself things will get better. Right?” Even if he doubted it…


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based off of a question (and the answer) posed about Arthur's pants. Original post [here.](http://ecto-rp.tumblr.com/post/159483813401/so-uh-new-question-we-have-the-answer-for-how)

Arthur looked at the pile of yellow fabric in Lewis’s outstretched hands and shook his head. He glanced down at his own pants, at the neatly stitched rents on the legs, from before he’d learned how to curl his toe-talons inward to avoid having sharp claws snagging and shredding the fabric.

“I don’t need them, big guy, thanks anyway.”

Lewis’s eyes darted up to meet his, purple iris on black another reminder that nothing could ever be the same again. “Why not?”

The yellow fabric in Lewis’s hands was the exact same shade as his battered old pants, in the places blood hadn’t darkened the shade. Arthur had a sneaking suspicion where the pants had come from, considering how often things that had been broken had been replaced and things that he needed miraculously appeared. A niggling little worm of thought wondered what would happen to the things he’d made if Lewis were to disappear.

Not that Lewis would leave him, right? He’d promised he wouldn’t leave. Arthur shook his head to chase away the downward spiral of his thoughts. “My old ones work just fine.”

“Arthur.” Lewis sounded exasperated. “They’ve been torn, there are stains on them that no amount of cold water is going to get out and you’ve worn then since… well, since that night. Plus it can’t be comfortable like that.” He indicated where the back of the pants hung almost immodestly low on Arthur’s hips to accommodate Arthur’s prehensile tail, currently lashing like an irritated cat’s.

Arthur’s temper frayed and he backed away a step, claws snagging on the rug, yet another painful reminder. “I— I don’t want them, okay?”

“Why?”

“Why can’t you make something for your _own_ sake, Lewis?! Do something for yourself, not for me! All I am is something you have to look after, feed and clothe like a freaking infant!” Arthur’s wings mantled over him. “I’m just a helpless burden who should’ve been the one to _die_ in that goddamned cave!” The words spilled from his lips before he could stop them and Arthur clapped a hand over his mouth, mortified. He’d promised himself he would never say what he’d never been able to shake the thought of; that if he’d just died in the cave, _none_ of this would have happened. Shame washed away the frustrated anger, leaving the taste of wet ashes in his throat.

Lewis stopped, his ethereal eyes sad. “Arthur. No. Don’t you ever think that. It’s not true.”

“Isn’t it?” Arthur couldn’t help the tears welling in his eyes. “I’m nothing but a stone around your neck, dragging you down with me.”

Warm arms enveloped him, pulling him tight against a strong chest where a locket beat like a heartbeat. “You are not. You are not helpless or a burden. You never could be.”

“And looking after me like a freaking infant isn’t a trial?” Arthur struggled to free himself, but Lewis held firm, solid as if he were stone and just as unmoving.

“No,” Lewis said softly in his ear. “Because we’re both finding our feet again. Helping you helps me; reminds me of who I was; who I still am. Keeps me from being one of those lost souls who barely remember what it was like to be human. And it reminds me that you are still my best friend, who didn’t deserve what that thing did to you. So let me help us both.”

Arthur sagged in his hold, tears making the world blurry. “But I don’t want to be like this, having to rely on you for every freaking thing.”

“You won’t always have to.” Lewis reassured. “Some day you will be able to do all the things you used to, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, green bat-monster strolling through Tempo to go to work at the garage. That’d go over well.”

Lewis poked him in the ribs. “We’ll find a way.”

Arthur sagged some more. “I wish I had your faith.”

“I’ve got enough for both of us.” Lewis told him. “Now go change and see if I got my measurements right.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an almost direct sequel to the last chapter (though it takes place later in the story after they have been reunited with Vivi) inspired when Ectoimp responded to the last chapter with "oh man, rereading that last drabble, I hope that that happened before Vivi finds them. Or else Arthur's clothes would be all bloodstained and that's no doubt upsetting to Vivi. (and mystery, but he's trying to be tough about everything)"

“What is this?”

Vivi’s voice was unusually strident and Arthur instinctively flinched. “Wha—?”

Vivi appeared from the hallway, a bundle of something yellow and rust-yellowish clutched in white-knuckled hands. Her eyes were wide and suspiciously damp.

Arthur knew what it was she’d found and his stomach clenched. He stumbled toward her on unsteady legs. “W-where d-did you f-find those?”

Vivi clutched the fabric to her chest and blinked at him. “You—” Her voice caught in her throat and broke. “Why d-didn’t you tell me you were this badly h-hurt?”

Agony filled Arthur’s chest and he wished he’d been able to throw the stupid things out, but some part of him wanted to hang onto them, some part that quietly thought they were the last piece of his humanity remaining. He tried to take them from her hands, but she wasn’t letting go. 

“I-it doesn’t matter, Vivi,” He tried for reassuring but his own voice was wavering. He’d _never_ wanted her to know. Not the truth of it, Not that he’d been as mortally wounded as Lewis, but the demon in his body had refused to let him die too. “It doesn’t matter how badly I was h-hurt. Lewis _d-died_ there and nothing that happened to me is important after _t-that._ ”

“You—” Vivi’s voice broke on a wail and she wrapped her arms around him. “Y-you idiot, it is important! You are as important t-to m-me as Lewis and don’t you ever t-think otherwise!” Her arms squeezed the breath out of him and his wings instinctively wrapped around her, as if he could shield her from the bitter truth. “I- I was so lost without y-you. I couldn’t remember Lewis but I knew I had to d-do _anything_ to f-find you. And you t-tell me it’s n-not important th-that you nearly _ **died**_ in that c-cave!?”

“Vivi, I—” Arthur found his own throat closing up. and tears burned in his eyes. “I’m sorry. I—” He wanted to blurt out what he thought, that he should have died too, not turned into this freakish _thing_ he was now… but those words would only hurt Vivi more, and he’d kept her from knowing how badly he’d been hurt to keep from inflicting that pain on her. “Please s-stop crying, Vivi. It’s okay. I’m st-still here and Lew is still h-here too. We’re different, b-but we’re still us.”

Her hug tightened again until his ribs creaked. “You’re not leaving me, ever again. _Ever_. I nearly lost you both and I couldn’t live like that.”

Arthur tugged her over until he could sit them both on the couch, cocooning her in the warmth of his wings and hoping Lewis would get back from the store soon, because he was much better equipped to handle a crying Vivi than Arthur.

All he could do was hold her and let her cry. Arthur spotted Mystery crouched by the entrance into the kitchen, looking small and miserable, and his wings and tail tightened around Vivi in instinctive fear, but he could hear Mystery whining softly. Mystery wanted to comfort Vivi, he knew, but the dog wouldn’t come near Arthur. He didn’t trust him.

Arthur wasn’t sure he was wrong.

**Author's Note:**

> The Demon!Arthur AU was created by Ectoimp so all credit really belongs to them, I'm just playing in their sandbox.


End file.
